Horse Park exec defends performance, sees bright future

Sunday

Oct 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM

This past year has been the first time the Horse Park has shown a profit, albeit a small one.

By Shawn DohertySpecial to the Star-Banner

This letter is in reference to the Star-Banner’s Oct. 13 article regarding the Florida Horse Park (“Horse Park board picks new chairman, looks to move past conflicts”). I would like to clarify some points that may not have been made clear regarding this article:The “outstanding debt” that was referred to in the article is not of my doing. It is old debt from the previous administrations that I inherited when I took the executive director position in July of 2012. I have been diligently working to get these debts paid off, or at least reduced. None of the current outstanding debt has been incurred under my administration.To my knowledge, this past year has been the first time the Horse Park has shown a profit, albeit a small one. This was due to the revenue from the events that we put on and a cost-cutting budget that I have put in place.The Horse Park has not received any outside financial help since March. To save money for the Horse Park, I even use some of my own personal equipment from my farm to maintain the grounds at the park. I am in final negotiations to obtain a donated new tractor for the park that is badly needed. For the past two seasons, I have even implemented the cutting and baling of hay of the Horse Park grounds to raise additional money. Every little bit helps.The Horse Park’s future is looking brighter due to the new covered arena that the state funded, and construction is ready to begin. After months of negotiations, we have a signed contract with a local company that I negotiated the original bid of $1.9 million down to $1.5 million. I am also hard at work on finding a sponsor for naming rights of the arena to bring in more revenue to the Horse Park.My salary is less than one-fourth of the $200,000 that was stated in the article for the prospective CEO that some members of the board wanted to interview for a position at the Horse Park. I took my position at a much reduced salary from the previous executive directors because I believe in the Horse Park and want it to succeed. I have always felt we should live within our means — crawl, walk, jog, run and then fly! I do not want the public’s perception to be that I am wasting money or running up new debt at the Horse Park, because that certainly is not the case.Shawn Doherty is executive director of The Florida Agriculture Center and Horse Park.